FOLDBACK Touring Exhibition 1999

The FOLDBACK exhibition which was developed as part of a project for the 1998 Telstra Adelaide Festival toured nationally during 1999 with support from the Visions of Australia touring exhibition program. The exhibition, which comprised a series of web sites, CDRom artworks and video, was presented at Umbrella Studios in Townsville, Kick Arts in Cairns, at 24 Hour Art in Darwin and at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. Simon Tait from Kick Arts said of the exhibition in Cairns, ‘The use of new technology attracted a wide audience, including many people who would not normally engage in the arts.The people who visited the exhibition tended to stay for a considerable period, enjoying the freedom offered to ‘surf through a range of aesthetics and interpretations of the artistic condition, perhaps making some comment on accessibility’.

The exhibition was opened in Darwin during the NISNMA project and Amanda McDonald Crowley was able to give the artists participating in that project a tour of the exhibition.

The project itself was an historical look at many of the artists who have been supported by ANAT programs in the first ten years of ANAT’s existence. For a number of the places to which the exhibition travelled it was the first time they were able to present such a diverse cross section of Australian New Media based artworks, and as such represented a terrific opportunity to have this work seen in new contexts and exposed to new audiences, particularly in regional Australia.

The exhibition grew from an original event the FOLDBACK Forum, ANAT’s contribution to the 1998 Telstra Adelaide Festival, provided ANAT with an remarkable forum to pay tribute to some of the artists and personalities who have contributed so vividly to ANAT’s identity over our initial ten years. We are confident that its success will give rise to an increased amount of work in this area in Robyn Archer’s 2000 Adelaide Festival.

ANAT is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council its arts funding and advisory body, by the South Australian Government through Arts SA and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.